Terms of Reference Feasibility Study and Developing the Business Model for Small scale Fishing Cooperative Society in Puntland 52 views0 applications

Background

Somalia has approximately a total of 3,900 km of coastline facing the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. Abundance of phytoplankton and zooplankton suggests that Somalia has some of the continent’s major fishing stocks. Different studies indicate high potential for fisheries development with evenly distributed fish stocks along the entire coastline, but with greater concentration in the Northeast. Puntland attained significant land mass adjacent to the coastal areas, and there are large number of households engaging in the fishing sector securing employment and earning income to cover their livelihood needs. Livestock and agricultural sectors have always been the main stay of the economy. More than 60% of the population is still nomadic pastoralists who depend on raising camels, cattle and goats for their livelihoods. Both fish demand and consumption of the Somalia is below standard, and it’s unusual to see that red meat is preferred in many areas including coastal areas where fishing culture is high. This resulting in the country to have one of the lowest per capita fish consumption in the world – a mere 1.6 kg/per person/per year. For comparison, average global and African fish consumptions are respectively 15 and 7 Kg/person/year.

The sub-sector is potential and can feed large population of the country and contribute to export market, yet it’s extremely rudimentary and there are great obstacle affecting both the quality, quantity and continuance of the production. The existence of weak regulatory and poor licensing, Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing activity, irrational inshore resources exploitation and lack of markets as well as the absence of effective fisheries governance in the country are some of the preliminary challenges affecting the sub-sector. If developed and managed in a sustainable manner, however, the fisheries sector has without any doubt great potential to contribute significantly to national economy at large through creating employment opportunities, increasing foreign exchange earnings, reducing food insecurity and increase nutrition of the citizens.

The Somalia Federal Government, Puntland regional state and donor had made significant support for the sub-sector in the country to improve the tapping capacity of the fishermen and local marketability of the fish through supporting fishing and other facilities. Though the is huge potential along the coastline of Somalia, yest the capacity of tapping and penetration in of these local fishermen into local markets is not with to satisfactory level while there is significant import of the processed fish tuna to whole Somalia dominating local markets. There is long history that there was number of initiations by the different development actors to assist the fisherman, and in some locations to engage the drought affected to community resettled in the coastal areas and provided with motorised fishing boats, training and supported transport services. These efforts were less paid, and there was no sufficient information as of how these key interventions were not worked and benefited the targeted communities in these locations, but some indicate that there was mismanagement in the groups, and fishermen dissatisfaction of the seasonal collection works, seasonality nature, and mainly majority of these were with limited information about market situation of sub-sector. But its reality that majority of these efforts had got no or little works related to supporting to get access to into the local markets and sufficient value chain works were not take into account.

The current assessment will further the exiting information outdated data, explore market opportunities (being local or external), and will solicit how the current fishermen are positioned in the current local markets, the overall chain of the fishing system and service providers in the target location supporting the Fishing business.

Islamic Relief Somalia (IRS) is intending to promote the fishing sub-sector renovating the existing fishermen by providing necessary fishing equipment, and supporting through market improvement for developing value chain of the sector. The sector had been superseded by other traditional sectors of herding and farming, and many in the urban centeres are using exported canned tuna while the fishermen are challenged with the shallowness of the local markets, and could not access international export market due significant bottlenecks. Though there is increasing trend and frequency of harsh drought, that might call the need for exploring new alternative livelihoods and streamlining coastal livelihoods in the fishing, yet the sub-sector is not the level intended and there are huge challenges bottlenecks hindering to unlock for the needy people. IRS is seeking thoroughly analyses the whole chain and seek possible interventions to promote the group beyond provision of key equipment and will collaborate with the wider actors in the business to ensure that fishing sub-sector is well transformed. Though bringing dramatic impact in short period is not the intention of any of the interventions, the current works are meant to build the basement for future programming and supporting development actors in action to promote the fishing as one of the key livelihoods in the coastal zones of Puntland state, and Somalia in general.

The study will focus on analyzing the current fishing opportunities, value chain of the sub-sector in the regional state, the policy and regulatory framework of the fishery sub-sectors, the capacity of the actors in the business, business service providers and incentives, and bottlenecks challenging the fishermen to benefit from the sub-sector, and will develop Business model fitting to the context of the fisherman that will enable them benefit and sustain in the market. The result of the assessment will inform the IRS fishery interventions, and will give insight to the current programmes meant to support the fishermen in the target locations of Iskushuban and Banderbeyla districts in Puntland.

The consultant will deliver fully-fledged report expressing about the potential demand of the fish in the target urban market center, existing fish market chains, regulatory policies and procedures, business service providers, trend of Fish supply and determinants, Fishery Business Model for Puntland, and then develop value chain improvement plan including detailed cost benefit analysis. The detailed scope of work for the consultant, methodology, duration and key deliverables are articulated in the requirement section of this call.

Scope of the feasibility study

The assessment will cover the fishing sub-sector of Puntland Regional State sampling the Benderbeyla (Kulule and Celdhidar) and Iskushuban(Handa and Kumbah) Districts, Berri region.

The Sample of the feasibility

The project will be target 8660HH in the target locations Handa, Gumbah under Iskushuban District and Kulule and Gumbah under Banderbeyla District therefore, the sample size of the feasibility study are following:-

Purpose of the Feasibility and the business model for the fishing sector

1. To identify the current status of the sub-sector in terms of employment generation, production potentiality and seasonal trend, local consumption and explore the possibility of accessing export markets
2. Undertake mapping of the existing fishery domestic market value chains and track the links to international market channels, assess challenges and opportunities of both markets
3. Conduct Deep dive study on key market chain actors, governance of the chain, and analyze the profitability of the sector by the different stakeholders in the marketing chain
4. To objectively and rationally analyze the strengths and weaknesses of Fishermen Co-operative Society Limited (newly formed), opportunities and threats present in the operating environment, the resources required to carry through, and ultimately the prospects for success.
5. Identify and assess the key market functions-mode of transporting fishing from costal sites to end markets, storage facilities at the costal and intermediary fish traders, existing inland processors and linkage to external international markets, any processing and/or preservation fish by the cooperatives and the challenges and opportunities related to transportation and processing of fresh fish in target locations and to major cities
6. Mapping of the fishery cooperatives, their fishing capacities, fisher folks (by number and gender), location, outputs and the opportunities and challenges that they face.
7. Undertake overall value chain analysis of the sub-sector, sketch the market diagram showing the end-to-end process, with the cost/benefits and profitability, and propose viable value chain plan for the sub-sector, that could fit Islamic Relief programming
8. Assess the access and availability of the different service providers and business supporters including the enabling environment in the target location/Puntland regional state
9. Provide relevant information that could help IRS to foster strong fishermen institutions that provide services to fishermen

Methodology of the Study

The methodology for this study will include both Primary and Secondary data accessing from direct and indirect data sources, analysis and cross referencing, and formulating recommendations thematically and as area/site-specific. The Consultant will finalise equip suitable sampling techniques for the target location, design analytical frameworks for the study, and detailed methodology to undertake this study in line with the scope of the assessment, will be presented and refined with the management during the inception meeting.

The methodology used during this assessment will overall, include, but not be limited to the following:

• Desk Review-Review existing relevant secondary information and reports related to fish production in Kenya. Review of previous IR Somalia related project level documents and reports.
• Staff Discussion– Discuss with key IR Somalia staff, partners, and key informants at Office and field implementation levels.
• Primary Data Collection – Carry out field visits in the implementation areas for data collection using Households Survey, FDGs, KIIs and observations. This includes, community-level participatory meetings and focused group discussions for data collection and information gathering.
• Use of data from local institutions or organizations, and undertake triangulation.
• Data cleaning and verification and analysis
• Develop comprehensive Assessment report for the organization (IRS)

Duration of the feasibility study

The consultant will conduct the feasibility study for 30 days.

Team Composition and Qualifications Requirements,

The consultancy/consultant team will be primarily responsible for:

• The consultant should have Msc in Agricultural Economics, or in Agribusiness or Fishery and Aquatic Science, Animal science/rangeland, with proven consultancy works on fish value chains, business development Share and market development works
• Include the proposal the detailed roles and responsibilities qualifications and experiences of the study team relevant for the current task, all experiences documents, legalities including licenses and registration certificates
• Development/design feasibility survey tools including questionnaires for HH survey and checklist and tools for group interaction including FGD with target beneficiaries at village levels.
• Share the study design including process, methods, and questionnaires/checklist with the programme team, collect feedback and finalize the study design.
• Pre‐test questionnaires and other tools in one of the project sites.
• Submit an inception report.
• Debrief/discuss with the project team about effectiveness of questionnaire, checklists, and other tools used in the pre‐test, collect feedback and finalize them.
• Orient, train, and supervise the enumerators.
• Carry out fieldwork together with enumerators.
• Ensure the quality of information collected from fields, cross-check with the validity of information collected and verify/revise where needed.
• Update progress of the study on a weekly basis to the M&E coordinator and the FSL Specialist.
• Analyze data and prepare quality reports.
• Give a presentation of the draft report to IR Somalia, and;

Key Deliverables of the Consultant,

Work plan and expression of interest (EOI) for the feasibility survey, outlining;

• A detailed methodology for implementation of the survey, including proposed sample sizes.
• Draft data collection tools (The Consultant shall refine proposed standard indicators in reference to the pproject indicators and other guidelines provided by IR Somalia)
• A detailed work plan for the study.
• Presentation of survey methodology to IR Somalia team in an inception meeting and later incorporate suggestions in the final inception report.
• A draft report of the study for feedback and comments from IR Somalia and partners involved.
• Presentation on the main findings of the study for validation involving project teams, and other stakeholders as agreed with the project team.
• Submit a final report (a compiled version of the report ‐ both hard copy and electronic version in word format) to the project after incorporating the feedback and suggestions from IE Somalia team.